Tax & Budget Policy News

Obama’s remarks echo PIRG’s call to reform the next distribution of bailout dollars, but we’d like to see even more

“Last night, President Obama again called for greater accountability on the part of banks who receive funds from the government, which aligns with PIRG’s call for reform of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). We absolutely agree that the American taxpayer has neither the stomach nor the resources to continue to support irresponsible decisions, zero accountability and a basic failure to do the right thing. As we wrote in our first report card  on the TARP program, not this time. While we are encouraged by the President’s tough talk on how to proceed from here, we believe that the Treasury Secretary would benefit from additional tools, mandated by law, to give the American people a greater sense of confidence in this program. 

Making sure that the banks are doing what the original law intended – in terms of getting credit flowing, increasing lending, and keeping people in their homes – is also something that PIRG will follow closely in our next Report Card. We look forward to seeing the President’s call for returning to these principles take effect. In addition, PIRG supports making any reforms to the program retroactive – so that we know what happened to the first $350 billion.”